Things To Do in Euless

Consider activities that take about an hour to complete: a trip to the grocery store, a relaxing massage, watching a favorite television show. Rarely, if ever, do haunted houses fall into this category—unless you're talking about Cutting Edge Haunted House in Fort Worth. In 2009, the attraction’s length caught the attention of Guinness World Records, which deemed Cutting Edge the longest walk-through haunted house in the world.

Looming in a section of the city dubbed “Hell’s Half Acre,” Cutting Edge populates an abandoned meatpacking plant that was originally built in the late 1920s. The plant’s equipment is still fully operational, and still resides inside—only today, it processes humans. To escape such a grisly fate, guests must grope through a multi-storied labyrinth replete with unthinkable horrors such as live monsters, realistic special effects, and salsas made in New York City. Cutting Edge is so terrifying, in fact, that it even earned the top spot on HauntedHouseRatings.com's list of the best haunted attractions in 2013.

Keeping alive the tradition set by the legends of the original American Association—where players such as Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays once toed the batter's box, before the league was absorbed by the professional ranks—the Grand Prairie AirHogs take the diamond to face off against rivals. As part the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, the club brought sandlot glory to their fans in 2011, when they won the Association's championship. Mirroring the on-field excitement, the new QuikTrip Park turns each outing into a memorable shindig with a party deck, a 17,000-square-foot kids' zone, and a pool adjacent to the outfield. Between innings, fans can fuel up at the stadium’s sports bar or leapfrog over each of the park’s 5,445 seats.

Brunswick has been a trusted name in recreational pin pulverizing for more than a century, providing good times to patrons across the country. Today’s Groupon allows lane-tamers of all skill levels to embark upon their own two-game competitive adventure outfitted with America’s most popular adventure accessory, freshly disinfected bowling shoes. Season your afternoon with a pleasant peppering of strikes, spares, and easygoing gutter balls under classic bowling conditions, or when you're ready to take the next bold step in ball-hurling evolution, engage in a round of cosmic bowling, where dancing lights, thumping tunes, and black-lit bowling accouterments light up the full sensorium. Because you can buy up to 10 of today's deal, you'll be able to spend a good chunk of your day or night at Brunswick Zone taunting your friends and taking out frustrations on a group of hapless pinheads.

Fast Action Airsoft sates thrill-based cravings with more than 19 acres of battlefields and urban-assault areas for squads of Airsoft combatants ages 12 and older. Twelve industrial buildings create a unique setting for sharpshooting duels that is roughly the size of a small city for humans or a huge city for stunt doubles from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Lone wolves or cooperating packs can spend the day exploring the warehouses to find strategic advantages or improvised cover when ambushed by rivals. Like bobbing for piranhas, full-seal goggles are required for every contest, and players must provide their own guns and a stock of biodegradable BB ammunition. Find a full description of equipment rules and regulations online.

Gondola Adventures sets quartets afloat on the Mandalay Canal and Lake Carolyn for a melodious aquatic outing spiced with Venetian charm. After boarding a sleek, electric craft or traditional single-oar gondola, wayfarers skim the water's surface to the tune of their gondolier's private serenade or the soothing softness of prerecorded romantic tunes. Gourmet chocolates and cider nourish tummy butterflies as the ship glides into sheltered inlets with views of cascading falls—a cue for sweethearts to lock lips and for wooden figureheads to shield their eyes and giggle. As the lake-top explorations wind down, the gondolas skate back to the docks along the unshared waterways, allowing guests to enjoy total solitude aside from the occasional patrol craft or stork addicted to peek-a-boo.

Though the instructors at Dallas Concealed Carry recognize that some people want intense drill-sergeant-style training, they prefer the relaxed approach. The instructors maintain a light, friendly atmosphere with lively classroom training bolstered by multimedia presentations. They teach the basics of marksmanship and lead classes such as the certified concealed-handgun-license course, which includes classroom instruction taught by a certified instructor, range instruction with a certified firearms instructor, a range-proficiency test, and help filling out all the necessary paperwork to apply for a license.

Cindy Gibson hears a lot of ecstatic exclamations from first-time jumpers—including gratuitous use of the words "awesome" and "amazing"—but one of the most memorable remarks she ever heard came from a woman celebrating her 81st birthday. After landing, Cindy asked her why she waited so long to try skydiving. The woman replied that her husband never let her. Then she cracked a sly smile and said, "But now he's dead."

Cindy certainly understands the lifelong desire to skydive. "I don't remember a time when I didn’t want to jump out of airplanes," she says. But growing up, she figured you had to be paratrooper to do it. Then as a waitress in college, she overheard some customers talking about going skydiving, and she convinced them to take her along. The more she went, the more ways she found to improve the experience. With this newfound love and knowledge of the skydiving business, she sought out a parcel of land and a passionate team and founded Texas Skydiving Center.

Today, she and her team of instructors lead tandem jumps, static-line jumps, and solo free falls thousands of feet above their picturesque facility. Beyond using equipment and instructional methods that are compliant with the United States Parachute Association's standards, the instructors' claim their chief difference lies in the individual attention they give each client. Groups are kept small so that all are on a first-name basis, and the instructors ask each person what they hope to do in the air. A bunch of flips? Maybe a zen-like float? On the way down, they can even record the jumps with several filming options. An eco-friendly dropzone then awaits skydivers, where chattering guinea fowl snatch up insects, colorful songbirds flit through wildflowers, and a llama and alpaca knit their own wool into a commemorative scarf for each successful skydiver.